Our annual sell-out smorgasbord of stories – invariably funny, moving, and rousing – signals the start of three days of public programming. Eight writers deliver a seven-minute true story, propless and scriptless, inspired by the theme Altered States. Don’t miss the literary gymnastics of Chilean/Canadian playwright, actor, memoirist and former revolutionary Carmen Aguirre; NZ/Samoan poet Tusiata Avia; Christchurch raconteur Joe Bennett; Cambridge-educated trade lawyer and rising Zimbabwean star Petina Gappah; erstwhile Midnight Oil front man and politician Peter Garrett; New York woman of letters Vivian Gornick; author of the European sensation The Dinner Herman Koch; and the incomparable UK writer Jeanette Winterson.